I can try for your heart
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day one hundred and seven: VALENTINES #2 Mike has suffered a loss, and Brittany sees him through it.


Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a second cycle, and then a third, fourth, and fifty cycle. Now here's cycle 6!

Valentine's Day is coming, of course I couldn't ignore it! So I picked ten couples (some with OC characters) and set them for a love fest! :D Then on Valentine's Day, a group story! (not that kind of group, minds out of the gutter!) *cough* Anyhoo...  
**Valentine for the Gleeks, 2 of 11: Mike & Brittany**

* * *

**"I can try for your heart"  
Mike/Brittany**

He wasn't one of those who could just open himself up for all to see when he was upset. He'd just fade into the scenery, more so than he may already have. You could not even realize he was there.

When his grandma Joy died, he was a ghost for days.

Mr. Schuester had excused him from Glee Club, for as long as he needed. He took up the offer with thanks. His grandma Joy had been, after his mother of course, the most important woman in his life. She was a tough one, never liked anyone to worry over her. If she'd been sick, she had never told any of them. That was part of what made it so hard.

None of the others knew how to handle themselves around him. They all looked scared, like he would start crying in front of them or something. He wasn't… but he'd let them think it. They were all on edge… not all of them. All but one…

Brittany was always on his side, like no one else was. She didn't do much, but it was everything. Sitting outside one afternoon, he'd waited to go in, knowing the others would be in the middle of practice, and he wasn't there with them. But as much as he wanted to be with them, his heart just wasn't in it… it was still fixing the crack losing grandma Joy had made. So he'd sat there, almost out of respect for the rest of them. He couldn't be there, but he was around.

At one point, he swore he'd heard someone call his name. He looked around, but there was no one.

A minute later, he heard the door open and close… and then there she was. She came to sit by him. She didn't speak at first. She just looked at him, waited. He gave her a small smile, which she returned. And then it hit him…

"Did I… hear you before?" She smirked.

"Saw you from the window and I tried to say hi, but…" she shrugged.

"Practice isn't over," he pointed out.

"I'm in the bathroom," she declared, picking at a loose thread on her Cheerios' skirt. He watched her while she was focused on her skirt. He knew she probably wasn't even trying, but just having her there, he felt better. "I'm sorry," she said after a moment. When their eyes met, she elaborated. "About your grandmother…" The quiet sadness regained him.

"Thank you."

"Were you close?" He had to smile.

"Very much."

"I'm like that with my grandfather," she nodded. When that thought crossed with the concept of his ever dying, she felt a tightening in her chest… She didn't like how it felt. Seeing this, Mike got to focus his energies on her, pushing away other ideas.

"What are you guys working on now?" She calmed a bit at that.

"New choreography," she shrugged. "When are you coming back?"

"Soon," he promised. Brittany seemed pleased by this. After that, they had remained seated as they were, in silence. Mike could see, after a moment, that Brittany was lost in thought. Whatever she was thinking about, she looked determined. Eventually, she turned to look at him.

"Let's just go," she nodded. "You don't have to stay," she pointed out. He hesitated, but she stood, held her hand out to him.

He looked at her hand, back up to her. She had that serene look about her he'd always loved. He very much wanted to go with her, wanted to stay for the principle of the thing.

"We can get ice cream, it'll help," she nodded confidently. "My treat," she beamed.

That clinched it. He put his hand in hers, let her pull him up on his feet and pull him along. She was just what he needed in that moment, needed that spirit. For the first time since grandma Joy had passed, he felt a song in his heart, and he let it play out in his mind, though it was clear it was meant for her.

"_There's no combination of words / I could put on the back of a postcard / No song that I could sing / But I can try for your heart, / our dreams, and they are made out of real things / like a shoebox of photographs / with sepia-toned loving._

_Love is the answer / at least for most of the questions in my heart, like / Why are we here? And where do we go? / And how come it's so hard? / It's not always easy and / sometimes life can be deceiving / I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when we're together."_

After leaving McKinley – they didn't drive, they walked – they headed to get the aforementioned ice cream. As they walked, Brittany proceeded to tell him about what they were doing in Glee Club, showing him the new choreography as they went. She didn't seem to mind or realize that people might be looking at her dance-walking along… He had always appreciated that quality about her.

Finally they reached the shop, and Brittany bought their ice cream. He tried to pay, but she just shook her head, blonde ponytail swaying along, and handed the money to the cashier. They got the cups and spoons and moved to sit.

"_Mmmm, It's always better when we're together / Yeah we'll look at the stars and we're together / Well, it's always better when we're together / Yeah it's always better when we're together"_

As they ate, she asked him to tell her stories about his grandmother. He smiled… remembering had that effect on him. He told her about her famous Christmas pie, the best part of all his holidays, more than even presents. He told her about the day his younger brother was born, how she'd come in like a hurricane, gathering him and his mother to go to the hospital after labor had started and his father was unreachable at work. His little brother was named Joseph, but they called him Joey, in her honor.

"_And all of these moments / just might find their way into my dreams tonight, / But I know that they'll be gone / when the morning light sings / and brings new things / for tomorrow night you see / that they'll be gone too, / too many things I have to do"_

Leaving the shop, with their cups not yet emptied, they walked along still swapping stories. Mike would go on about grandma Joy, while Brittany told him about her grandfather, who held much the same importance to her as his grandmother did to him. It was the kind of moment he would remember.

"_But if all of these dreams might find their way / into my day to day scene / I'd be under the impression / I was somewhere in between / With only two, / Just me and you, / Not so many things we got to do / or places we got to be / We'll sit beneath the mango tree, now."_

When the empty cups were thrown away, rather than inviting closure on this outing, he decided to invite her over to his place. They returned to school to get his car and drive off home. He felt at peace with her, better than in recent days, could he be blamed for wanting to hang on to it?

"_Yeah It's always better when we're together / Mmmm, we're somewhere in between together / Well, it's always better when we're together / Yeah, it's always better when we're together."_

She'd ended up staying for dinner with the family. His brother, quiet as always, seemed to like having her around too. After dinner, they hung out in the basement, watching a movie. When he turned to her to comment on the movie, he saw she had dozed off, head on the arm rest… he didn't want to disrupt her.

"_I believe in memories / they look so, so pretty when I sleep / Hey now, and when I wake up, / you look so pretty sleeping next to me / But there is not enough time, / There is no, no song I could sing / and there is no combination of words I could say / but I will still tell you one thing / We're better together."_

He didn't know of anyone he'd ever felt like this about. She always knew how to make him happier without much effort at all.

He let her sleep on for a while more. When the movie ended though, he moved to carefully nudge her awake. She blinked for a moment, disoriented. When she saw Mike, she remembered and she sat up, almost embarrassed for having fallen asleep. He drove her home, thanking her for what she'd done.

He went back to Glee Club after that. She had reawakened him just as much as he had her. How they'd go on from there, he wasn't sure, but he'd find some way.

THE END


End file.
